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Monday, 22 December 2014

The last tag of the year..... how time flies! I know I keep saying this, but December's tag has to be my favourite of the whole year. I stuck pretty much with the way Tim did his, mainly because of lack of time but I also had a few of the things he used, which makes a nice change from improvising!

I won't go into the 'how to' as Tim always does a wonderful step by step, which you can see HERE.

Here is a close up of the beautiful deer with just a hint of a sparkly coat. I used a jingle bell instead of a silver bell, a different background stamp and embossing folder but everything else is pretty much the same as Tim used.

And of course, I did a second tag for my lovely friend Ali of Ali-Craft.

I know it is a very busy time of year but there is still time to enter our challenge at Inspiration Journal, which is 'Sing, Sing it Loud'. There is, as always, a wonderful prize of $50 to spend at Inspiration Emporium for one lucky winner! Just imagine, having $50 to spend in the New Year! If you do decide to have a spending spree, you can use my code Redanne to get 10% off your whole order too.

Since this is my last post before Christmas I just wanted to thank you for all your very welcome visits during the year and to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year. You will never know how much your visits and comments mean to me, nor how much pleasure I get from visiting you and seeing your amazing creations. You are an exceptionally talented lot of crafters!!

Thursday, 18 December 2014

Well, Christmas is just around the corner now! O Christmas Tree is one of my favourite carols and the one thing I love about preparing for Christmas is decorating the tree..... sadly, I do not have ours up yet but I have made a little one for my craft room which I hope you will like ....

I used the Cabinet Card and mini Cabinet card dies to create the frame and then I made it 3D so that the tree looked like it is in a window. To make it 3D I simply cut a strip of card 3/4" wide, followed the line of the Cabinet Card die and then glued the frame on top. I used the Poinsettia embossing folder with Tim Holtz & Ranger Distress Collection card in Fired Brick to cover the frame. The 'wallpaper' inside the frame is from Tim's Merriment set of papers.

You can see the 3D effect of the frame a little better in this picture..... and yes, the whole piece lights up too, which you will see in a moment!

I used the waste from the front frame to create a hidden compartment for the battery pack. As you can see in this picture I sanded the embossing to lift it a little.

Because the tree is quite small and I wanted to decorate it, I added the lights to the inside of the frame so as not to clutter the tree too much. I used a few seed beads, some tinsel twine and one of Tim's Idea-ology stars to decorate the tree.

At Inspiration Journal the Challenge Theme this month is 'Sing, Sing It Loud' and we would love to see you join in - there is a fantastic prize on offer of $50 to spend at Inspiration Emporium for one lucky person.

I was inspired to make my Christmas home decor piece by one of my favourite carols but also by the current challenge at Compendium of Curiosities #17 which is Woodlands & Tinsel Twine. The technique, which I used on my tinsel, can be found on Page 60 of Tim's Compendium of Curiosities. This challenge is sponsored this time by Inspiration Emporium where there is another wonderful prize of $50 to spend. In addition, the Curiosity Crew will chose their favourite entry, who will win a fabulous prize donated by Tim and Mario.

Since it might be a little while before I can join in again at CC3C I would like to take the opportunity to say thank you to the Curiosity Crew for all their inspiration in the 17 challenges to date and to wish them a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Should you want to make a purchase from Inspiration Emporium, you can use my code Redanne to receive a 10% discount from your whole order.

I hope to be back soon with my Tim Tag for December, I hope to see you again then. Hugs, Anne xx

Just a very quick post to say that I have a step by step over on Inspiration Journal's blog today, showing how to make quick and easy gift bags - great if you are short of time, as most of us are at this time of year! Here is a sneak peek:

I would love it, if you have the time to pop over, have a look and hopefully leave a comment!

Sunday, 14 December 2014

I mentioned last time that we have had a Secret Santa exchange on the Design Team and I would like to share what I received and also what I sent! Brenda has also organised a fabulous Christmas Give-away and Creative Guide Hop, details of which you can see here at A Vintage Journeytoo so pleasepop over and see how it works!!

I apologise if I have not visited you recently, this is a scheduled post as we are both very under the weather with horrendous colds.

Obviously, because it was a secret, I did not know who my gift would be from, so when a box arrived from the hugely talented Brenda, I was thrilled, to say the least. Our brief was simple, just paper or card. I am going to stop waffling now and let you see my absolutely stunning gift:

Brenda made me a book - yes, a book! Not just any old book either, it opens out into 12 sections, to fit my 12 tags of 2015! How fabulous is that...

On the left hand side is a plastic holder, just the right size for a Tim tag and on the right hand side of each section is a fabulous collage.

Each page is exquisite and totally in Brenda's style. I have only shown you two of my favourite pages but they are all beautiful. Brenda shows the pages in lots of detail on her blog HERE. I really need to show you something else as well.....

The binding on the book is incredible, so beautifully neat, when you open each page the whole book lies flat. Like I said earlier, Brenda is hugely talented and I am so honoured to receive this beautiful gift from her.

Now on to the gift I made. I was so thrilled that I got my lovely 'bestie' Jenny Buttons to make a gift for - lucky or what!

When Jenny came to my house for a crafty day she admired my antique perpetual calendar and as I love to construct 3-D projects, I just had to have a go didn't I? Jenny loves all things vintage and particularly vintage sewing so I went for this theme and made her this:

I used the fabulous Eileen Hull Artist Trading Blocks to make the blocks and of course Tim Holtz papers for the covering, his WordPlay die for the numbers and Distress Spray Stains on the blocks. I do love how Tim's products and other Designer's products work so well together.....

The view from the back, showing more of the lovely papers. The blocks sit slightly tilted backwards.

A view of the blocks. I put the months on by using tissue paper which I ran through my printer, these were glued to the blocks using Ranger Glue and Seal.

I am so pleased to report that Jenny loved her calendar! I certainly enjoyed making it for her!

I loved doing this Secret Santa, thank you so much Brenda for organising it. I feel incredibly lucky to work on a Design Team with Brenda, Jenny and all the other amazingly talented ladies.

Please do go over to A Vintage Journey and see all the lovely gifts given and received by the team.

If you have not already been over to A Vintage Journey, please have a look too at Brenda's Christmas Give-away and Creative Guide Hop, you could be in with a chance of winning. Like they say - you have got to be in it to win it!

Thanks for looking and as always I really appreciate all your comments. Hugs, Anne xx

Friday, 12 December 2014

Nikki has chosen a wonderful theme for us this time at A Vintage Journey - Let's Celebrate. I love New Year, it is always time for celebration in our family, because of our Scottish roots, so I have made a card, a fairly simple one as I wanted to show off Tim's new Alphanumeric dies, Ranger's Vintage Foil Sheets and my new love - Distress Spray Stains.

The base card is Kraft. I took some white card and spritzed it liberally with Tea Dye and Gathered Twigs Spray Distress Stains and then used Tim's technique for the November tag and added some dots of foiling before cutting the words out. I used the fabulous Alphanumeric dies for the wording. There are 125 letters in the set so each word can be cut out in full - I taped them down with some tissue tape to hold them in place. You don't have to replace the 'inner' part of the words but I did because I thought it looked better...

The weathered clock was coloured with Tea Dye Distress ink and then coated with Vintage Photo Distress Embossing Powder, it has a lovely rough and uneven texture.

I had already covered a piece of card with the Vintage Foil (the colours in the pack are just gorgeous). I put some foam pads on the top piece so that there is a slight gap between it and the foiled layer. It is a bit difficult to capture the beautiful foiling but it looks really effective when it picks up the light.

So there we have it, a quick and easy card! We hope you will join in Nikki's wonderful challenge atA Vintage Journey. As always there is a £10 prize on offer for one person, chosen by the Creative Guides (DT) from Country View Crafts, our fabulous Sponsor. Please do pop over to AVJ to see what my Creative Guide Sisters have made, each project is outstanding!

The A Vintage Journey Design Team have had a Secret Santa and I have something very special to show you on the 14th so I hope you will come back then. Thanks for your visit. Hugs, Anne xx

Tuesday, 9 December 2014

Firstly, I apologise if I have missed any of your recent posts, we are away at the moment and time with the Grandkids is precious. Fingers crossed this scheduled post goes up!

Eileen Hull's fantastic challenge this month at Art With Heart is 'Holiday Traditions'. With the festive season fast approaching we hope that you will enter one of your seasonal projects.

I was asked by one of my neighbours to create a holiday house (complete with Carolers - a holiday tradition) along the same lines as my Halloween house here. I do love building 3D projects so of course I used my Eileen Hull Artist Trading Block dies to make the base and roof.

To create the basic structure I used two large ATBs for the main house, one medium ATB for the porch and three small ATBs for the side tower.

The exterior has been coated with Tim Holtz Texture Paste, it is lovely and white so I just gave it a very quick coat of Picket Fence Distress Paint.

The windows and doors are just all cut free hand, the windows are 'glazed' with vellum. The wreath on the front door is created with Tim's pine twine and some red ribbon.

The Carolers are cut from clear shrink plastic which I covered with black alcohol ink before shrinking. I decorated the trees and added a star to the top of each.

The roof has been covered with black glitter and some fake snow. The ridge boards are cut from a Tim Holtz strip die. The opening at the back houses a set of battery operated lights so that the house can be lit up at night.

The base has been covered with some white fleece which has had some fake snow sprinkled on.

I hope that the little scene raises a few £'s for the school funds and I hope you like it too! I have got a commission to build another one now.....

I would also like to invite you to join in another challenge, over at Inspiration Journal which is 'Sing it Loud'. You need to include music in the form of sheet music, stamping, patterned paper, die cuts etc. As always there is a prize of $50 Emporium Dollars for one lucky winner. If you go shopping at Inspiration Journal and use my code Redanne, you will get an amazing 10% off your whole purchase.